04/25/24
January 06, 2009
Photos from the Wimbledon men's final, 2008: Marc Aspland is the multi-award winning Chief Sports Photographer for the Times. This is his collection of photographs, and some of his comments on them, from what he considers to be "possibly the best men's final I shall ever see in my lifetime". If you need a quick reminder, there are highlights of the match here, and some terrible poetry reading from the main protagonists here.
The photograph of the oncoming clouds (number 9 in the url sequence) deserves to be marketed as a framed print. It would look good in any tennis fan's game room/bar/den. I would also nominate the 2 of Nadal holding the trophy (numbers 34 and 35) for a similar use. The photo with the sun flare in the lens (21) is also a great piece of work. Thanks for sharing, JJ.
posted by Howard_T at 12:25 PM on January 06, 2009
I had to go You Tube nutty after reading this and taking another look at this match. The quantity of quality on that day is staggering. If a better match happens in my lifetime, It'll have to be played by jet-pack wearing, exploding ball equipped tennis-nauts. Winner becomes President of the World.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 05:51 PM on January 07, 2009
Nice photos, the commentary was laughably bad though:
"As the impending dark clouds roll over SW19 like some foreboding Shakespearian play, these two central characters are locked in a battle which leaves the audience spell-bound."
"The clock shows, 8.55pm an almighty 4 hours and 27 minutes of this Shakespearian drama of Dickensian lengths."
lol It's amusing/embarrassing when sportswriters try to wax poetic.
posted by sic at 07:02 PM on January 07, 2009
In fairness to him, he's a photographer, not a writer. But yes, describing a tennis match as Shakespearian is bad enough, but then describing that Shakespearian tennis match as Dickensian is verging on the Vonnegutian.
A picture says a thousand words. His editor should have cut all his copy on that basis alone.
posted by JJ at 04:30 AM on January 08, 2009
Excellent set of photos and very good accompanying commentary. I especially appreciate the change in the light quality over time -- just shows how much of a marathon this was. Fitting also that he got one of Rafa picking his arse, which happens multiple times per game.